Alumni Profiles

Carol T. Christ (PhD 1970, English), former president of Smith College and a recipient of the Graduate School’s Wilbur Cross Medal, will become chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, on July 1. She is the first woman to hold that ... read more

Eric R. Fossum (PhD 1984, Engineering and Applied Science) has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering for his invention of the “camera-on-a-chip” — technology that is used worldwide in industries that range from medical equipment... read more

Stuart Henderson (PhD 1991, Physics) has been appointed director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia. He assumed his new responsibilities on April 3.
At JLab, Henderson... read more

Jonathan Rothberg (PhD 1991, Biology), a pioneer in genetic sequencing technology, a serial entrepreneur, and a Wilbur Cross Medalist, will receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the White House announced on December 22. The medal... read more

Art historian Garry Apgar (PhD 1988, History of Art) has produced two books about Mickey Mouse. He is author of Mickey Mouse: Emblem of the American Spirit (Walt Disney Family Foundation Press, 2015) and editor of A Mickey Mouse Reader (University... read more

Brian Jordan (PhD 2013, History), assistant professor of history at Sam Houston State University in Texas, has won the 2016 Governor John Andrew Award for Civil War History from the Seven & Eight Park Street Foundation of the Union Club of... read more

Keiko Itoh (MA 1976, East Asian Studies) has published her first novel, My Shanghai, 1942-1946 (Renaissance Books, 2015). It is a fictional account based on her mother’s experiences as a British-educated Japanese Christian who moved to Japanese-... read more

Patricia (Patty) Nelson Limerick (PhD 1980, History), faculty director of the Center of the American West and professor of environmental studies and history at the University of Colorado – Boulder, was named Colorado State Historian on January 11,... read more

Elizabeth Son (PhD 2011, American Studies), assistant professor in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University’s School of Communication, has won the 2015 Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty. The award is funded by the Andrew... read more

Joseph Luzzi (PhD 2000, Italian), professor of Comparative Literature at Bard College, is author of In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love (HarperCollins 2015). The book is a reflection on how Dante’s... read more

Raymond Smith (MA 1966; MPhil 1968, American Studies) has been known among bibliophiles since 1975 as the proprietor of R.W. Smith Bookseller, specializing in rare and out-of-print art books. Recently he produced an art book of his own: In Time We... read more

For more than half of her life, Annita Perez Sawyer (BA 1971, PhD 1981, Sociology) kept her troubled past a secret from all but a few people.
“The genie’s now out of the bottle,” says Sawyer, an assistant clinical professor of psychology at Yale,... read more

Colleen J. Shogan (PhD 2002, Political Science), deputy director of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and adjunct professor of government at Georgetown University, has murdered a senator. To be more precise, a fictional character she... read more

Raymond Smith (MA 1966; MPhil 1968, American Studies) has been known among bibliophiles since 1975 as the proprietor of R.W. Smith Bookseller, specializing in rare and out-of-print art books. Recently he produced an art book of his own: In Time We... read more